Villagers Flee Fresh Floods In Central China As Typhoon Approaches

Millions have been affected by the floods in Henan province, trapping people for days without fresh food or water, pulverising roads as they breached embankments and caking whole areas in thick mud.

Villagers were evacuated over makeshift bridges Friday as floods submerged swathes of central China, following a historic deluge which claimed at least 33 lives, while a typhoon threatened to bring more misery as it headed towards the country's east coast. Millions have been affected by the floods in Henan province, trapping people for days without fresh food or water, pulverising roads as they breached embankments and caking whole areas in thick mud. In the worst-hit city of Zhengzhou firefighters on Friday continued to pump the muddy water from tunnels including a subway where at least a dozen people drowned inside a train earlier in the week as a year's worth of rainfall dumped down in just three days. Overnight heavy rain saw floods surge northwards to Xinxiang and its surrounding areas where vast swathes of farmland were inundated and the town cut off as the Wei River burst its banks, thwarting efforts to plug the gaps with trucks.